Mr HOCKEY (North Sydney—The Treasurer) (14:36): I thank the honourable member for his question. The member for Bowman knows, as every other responsible member in this place knows, that if we expect Australians to live within their means so too must a government live within its means. The legacy of Labor is $667 billion of debt in 10 years' time if nothing is done. And the Labor Party are determined to not only stop us from fixing the mess that they created but also stop us from adopting some of their own measures to fix the mess that they created. They are opposing $5 billion of savings that they announced at the last budget. They took these to the Australian people for endorsement at the last election and now they are opposing their own savings. But do not worry, they have other savings. One of their savings is to reintroduce the carbon tax, because the Labor Party believes that increasing taxes is a saving. Well it is not a saving for everyday Australians, of course, but the Labor Party never see that as any cause for concern. The bottom line is the Labor Party— Mr Perrett interjecting— The SPEAKER: The member for Moreton will desist. Mr HOCKEY: says, 'Don't worry, we'll reintroduce the carbon tax and that'll help to redress part of the problem.' But that is $550 on every household each year; it is a lot of money. The other one the Labor Party has, which it claims is going to fix the budget, is keeping the mining tax. The mining tax is lesson 1 in how not to frame a tax. Swannie was proud of the mining tax, the member for Lilley was very proud of the mining tax. One of his great achievements was to introduce a tax that raises one per cent of what he forecast. Last quarter that mining tax raised $600,000. You know that is one per cent of what they thought it would do? And they said they would spread the benefits of the mining tax. That is 2½c for every Australian; that is spreading the benefits! The problem is the Labor Party committed $17 billion of expenditure against the mining tax that raises 2½c for every Australian. If the Labor Party thinks it can keep the mining tax to pay for $17 billion of expenditure, then by my calculation the mining tax would need to be in place for 7,083 years to raise the revenue just to pay for the Labor Party's expenditure against the mining tax over the next four years. Seven thousand years of mining tax! I tell you what: only the Labor Party could do it. It was incompetent in government; it is even more incompetent in opposition.